The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for controlling the operation of a digital telephone switchboard from a remote location.
Telephone switchboards (PBX) for providing communications within a firm and between the firm and the public switched telephone network are currently based on digital technology and provide users with a wide range of facilities for handling voice calls such as conferencing and diversion as well as operating as so-called call centres.
Although the concept of the call centre is not new, establishing a call centre has until recently, been a costly venture undertaken primarily by enterprises such as telemarketing firms, mail-order houses, and airline reservation companies that conduct a substantial proportion of their business using the telephone. These large-scale call centres usually entail the development of sophisticated custom software, which increases overall call-centre efficiency by tailoring such functions as agent queuing, database interface scripts, call monitoring and call routing and prioritising to meet the specific requirements of each individual application.
This basic technology has more recently been improved by utilizing screen based telephony utilizing computer apparatus that gives the user the full capability to make and answer calls by pressing keys on the computer keyboard or by pointing and clicking with a mouse. This is often known as softphone technology. These systems, however, retain much of the structure of the basic digital PBX and in particular can only monitor and control devices attached to internal telephone lines. They cannot control trunk lines which connect the PBX with the public switched telephone network.
In the past few years, there has been a move to utilize workers who operate from locations remote from the location of the PBX and this desire to utilize so-called teleworkers is prevalent with operations using call centres.
When utilizing teleworkers, it is preferable that the teleworker should have all the voice call facilities of a worker directly connected to the server and this has been best achieved by replacing conventional digital PBX""s with telephone switchboards that are either fully computer based or tightly integrated into a local area network in order to provide a general purpose telecom server which provides a wide range of voice and Internet communications features.
It will be appreciated that the major disadvantage of this arrangement is that it is necessary to completely replace the existing digital telephone switchboard and these costs have served as a disincentive to existing digital switchboard users in utilizing teleworkers.
One solution to this problem has previously been proposed by the Assignee of the present invention by providing a computer link between a conventional PBX and a computer utilizing a computer-telephone integration (CTI) interface. Working from computer terminals linked to the PBX and the computer, customer support agents receive or initiate customer calls, update customer accounts, take orders, and troubleshoot problems with products or services. This arrangement has been firer enhanced with the emergence of the telephone application programming interface (TAPI) and the telephone services application programming interface (TSAPI) coupled with such advancements in personal computer technology as multi-tasking, multi-media boards, and higher-speed buses.
While these improvements have enabled wider use of teleworkers they are based on the fact that each teleworker has to have a work station which runs TAPI and TSAPI software applications and they still use CTI communications with the PBX. These two factors constitute limitations on the facilities provided to an outworker and also unnecessary complications.
An object of this invention is to provide a method and apparatus for controlling a digital PBX from a remote location by utilizing a communications path which is either an alternative for or additional to the conventional CTI communication path.
A further object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for controlling a digital PBX from a remote location by utilizing a data path which is used to control the PBX to create a voice link with the remote location.
The present invention provides a method of controlling a digital PBX from a remote location which is provided with a computer and a voice terminal, the method comprising:
a method of controlling the operation of a digital switchboard from a remote location which is provided with a computer and a voice terminal, the method comprising
providing the digital switchboard with a configurable digital line card and means for configuring the digital line card;
using the computer at the remote locations to establish a data link with the digital switchboard, and
using the data link to configure the digital line card to establish a virtual telephone set effectively connected to the digital line card and to cause a voice call to be sent to the remote voice terminal.
A further aspect of the present invention provides an Interface apparatus for controlling the connection of a voice call input to a digital telephone switchboard to a remote location, the switchboard having at least two external telephone lines and a number of internal telephone lines, the apparatus comprising a voice server device for creating virtual telephone sets capable of connection to two internal telephone lines, and a computer apparatus connected to the server device and the switchboard for controlling the server device whereby to cause the incoming call to be connected to one of the virtual telephone sets to cause the remote location to be connected to the other of said virtual telephone sets, and to cause the two telephone sets to be linked together whereby to establish the connection between the input voice call and the remote station.
Preferably the connection between the remote location and the computer apparatus is by means of browser software such as JAVA(trademark) so that a work station may be used by the user at the remote location.
The remote location may have a work station and a separate telephone each provided with a separate telephone line. Alternatively, the need for a separate telephone line to the telephone may be removed by the use of voice over Internet software or the use of a 2-channel ISDN line to the work station.